Legal

Data License

Last updated: October 19, 2026

Overview

This page describes the license that applies to data published on speedrun.io, what you're permitted to do with it, and what requires consent.

speedrun.io is committed to keeping the speedrunning ecosystem open and accessible, on the runner's own terms. Our goal is to lower barriers for developers, researchers, and the community to build on shared data, while respecting the choices runners make about their own data.

Your Data, Licensed CC-BY-NC 4.0

speedrun.io operates /v1, a public, read-only archive of speedrun.com run, game, and user data. Public data in the archive is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC 4.0) by default. See the Privacy Policy for how that works and Your Data, Your Rules in the Terms of Service for the ownership guarantees behind it.

The archive spans speedrun.com's public run history from its inception through September 13, 2026 — the timestamp of its most recent run, a few weeks before speedrun.com's September 30, 2026 Terms of Use update forced a pause in new collection. It was collected under speedrun.com's then-current terms, while doing so was permitted. For an independent check on completeness and accuracy, the archive is cross-referenced against the public Kaggle mirror of speedrun.com data.

Under CC-BY-NC 4.0 you may:

  • Share and redistribute the data in any medium or format.
  • Adapt, transform, and build upon the data.

Under CC-BY-NC 4.0 you may not:

  • Use the data for commercial purposes.

Attribution to speedrun.com, the original source, is required when you redistribute or publicly display this data — see Attribution below. Data a runner has kept private, or shared only with specific groups or projects, is not covered by this public license and is not available outside the access that runner has explicitly granted.

Owner Overrides

A record's owner can override the CC-BY-NC 4.0 default for their own data, reflected directly in that record's meta.sources block:

  • License — a different SPDX-identified license (such as CC0-1.0 or MIT) in place of CC-BY-NC 4.0, applying from the date of the change going forward.
  • Visibility — public, archive-only, or restricted.
  • Accessibility — available via bulk export, the API, personal export, or some combination.

See Your Data, Your Call in the Privacy Policy for how to set these for your own data.

Internal Data Infrastructure Internal Use Only

Beyond the licensed public dataset, speedrun.io builds additional internal indexing, aggregation, and analytical infrastructure. This infrastructure is not exposed as a public product and is not covered by any open license, because it isn't offered externally at all.

This layer is built exclusively to power speedrun.io at scale. It does not contain personal data beyond what's needed to serve a user's own account, which is governed exclusively by the Privacy Policy and is never sold, licensed, or shared with third parties.

speedrun.io does not offer commercial access to this infrastructure and has no current plans to do so. See the Terms of Service for more on speedrun.io's non-commercial operating commitment.

Permitted Use

The following uses are explicitly permitted without requiring additional permission, provided you comply with the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license and the API Terms of Use:

  • Building applications, tools, bots, or services that query public, user-shared speedrun.io data.
  • Displaying speedrun.io data publicly, with attribution.
  • Academic research, journalism, and non-commercial analysis.
  • Automated access (via the API) that respects rate limits and does not circumvent access controls.
  • Personal projects and hobbyist tools with no revenue component.

Prohibited Use

The following uses are not permitted:

  • Redistributing speedrun.io data as a standalone data product, API, or feed for commercial gain.
  • Selling access to speedrun.io data, directly or as part of a bundled product.
  • Using any speedrun.io data for commercial purposes, consistent with CC-BY-NC 4.0.
  • Circumventing rate limits, access controls, or authentication requirements.
  • Bulk harvesting of data at a scale that degrades platform performance or constitutes an abusive access pattern.
  • Accessing, redistributing, or publishing a user's private or group-scoped data without that user's explicit consent.
  • Presenting speedrun.io data in a way that misrepresents its source or implies endorsement by speedrun.io.

Attribution

CC-BY-NC 4.0 requires crediting the original creator, not just the platform serving the data. When publicly displaying, redistributing, or building on speedrun.io's archive data, use: "Data from speedrun.com, licensed CC-BY-NC 4.0, via speedrun.io."

For a record whose owner has set a different license (see Owner Overrides above), attribute per that record's own meta.sources block instead.

Attribution must be visible to end users of any application or product that publicly displays this data. A footer link or credit line is sufficient for most applications.

Commercial Use

speedrun.io does not currently offer commercial licensing for any data on the platform, including user-shared public data or internal data infrastructure. Commercial use of platform data is not available under any arrangement at this time, and there is no process to request it.

This reflects speedrun.io's current operating posture, described further on the Terms of Service page. If this changes in the future, it will be reflected here first.

Changes to This License

We may update this data license from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via the speedrun.io platform and developer channels. Continued use of the API after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. All previous versions of this license will be readily available for review.

Contact

Questions about data licensing? Reach us at [email protected].